Short recalled a brief conversation she had with Chris Crawford at GDC in which he critiqued her and others interactive narrative games. “Youre not giving the player enough of a chance to respond; the game is doing all the talking and the player is doing all of the listening.”Said Short, “I assume what he wanted…
Sports journalism is full of colorful figures of speech, invented by writers who wanted to put a little variety into their writing. When given objective data about the game, a computer program has done a fairly good job of emulating sports lingo. The following story starts out by critiquing a sports news story that some…
When her boyfriend gave her copy of a travel guide for Wilder buffs, McClure added an itinerary of pilgrimages throughout the Midwest to her holiday plans. None of the Ingalls family’s several houses remains standing, but there are reconstructions of the little house in the big woods, the sod house from “On the Banks of…
Just finished listening to B. J. Harris narrate The Moonstone. The plot isn’t exactly rollicking, but I enjoyed the shifting narrators and in many paces Harris’s characterization of the fussy servant Betteredge made me laugh out loud. I really enjoy The Classic Tales Podcast, wherein Harris narrates about an hour of literature — a short…
The video clip on this page does not match the story, and there does not seem to be any way to post from my blog to the print version of the article. Looks like a silly attempt to control web visitors, in such a way as to prop up ABC’s slice of the dwindling TV…
Okay, I’ve posted enough of these to Twitter. Here are some more that I’ll leave here. That Can Be My Next Tweet reads your recent Twitter posts and mashes them up. These are probably only funny to me, but I’m chortling uncontrollably. Here are some more of the best ones. P. G. Wodehouse co-wrote the…
While I was at home recovering from a brief but dramatic illness, my wife took the kids to an educational event at our local library. When my son (who turned 13 last month) returned, he told this story — another example of his intersection of interest in both history and video games. I asked him to…
The incredible story behind an image we’ve all seen hundreds of times, possibly the most reproduced photograph in history It’s an iconic image we have all seen hundreds of times, possibly thousands, and probably the most widely reproduced photograph in history. Because it’s in the public domain it has been used for everything from car…
Today, a group of bloggers led by union organizer and journalist Jonathan Tasini will file a class-action suit against the Huffington Post, founder Arianna Huffington, and AOL, which acquired the news-and-blogs site in February. AOL, Arianna Huffington Hit with Class Action Suit – Jeff Bercovici – Mixed Media – Forbes. Similar:IN-ZOOM (A world-premiere 10-minute play)A…
I chaired a session on Friday, and gave a talk on Saturday — in the very last time slot of the conference. The Friday session went well, and sparked lots of hallway and online conversations; looking forward to proposing a related panel and/or SIG for next year. The Saturday talk was better attended than some…
50 years ago. Yuri Gagarin: First Man in Space April 12 was already a huge day in space history twenty years before the launch of the first shuttle mission. On that day in 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (left, on the way to the launch pad) became the first human in space, making a…
Not. The program says this panel, chaired by Scott Lloyd DeWitt and featuring Gail E. Hawisher, Richard J. Selfe, and Cynthia L. Selfe, is in Marquis Ballroom B, but there’s a different group there. No idea where this panel is. Maybe it was in an update I missed. Similar:We're Teaching Books That Don't Stack UpOur…
The essential problem of man in a computerized age remains the same as it has always been. That problem is not solely how to be more productive, more comfortable, more content, but how to be more sensitive, more sensible, more proportionate, more alive. The computer makes possible a phenomenal leap in human proficiency; it demolishes…
Northwestern University officials blasted a heralded journalism professor Wednesday, accusing him of doctoring records and repeatedly lying to his department’s dean and the school’s lawyers. Star professor David Protess has been at odds with his university for months, but school officials launched their strongest offensive yet, saying his conduct could “undermine the integrity” of the…
Julie Meloni put together this panel. When she invited me to submit a paper, I had already committed to another panel, so I offered to chair. I started with the joke about how the computer programmer died in the shower. (He read the instructions: “Wash, rinse, repeat.” I also invoked Cory Doctorow’s urgent plea, in…
These are my rough notes, nearly liveblogged (posted as soon as I had access to WiFi in the lobby). Paul Rogers and Andrea Lunsford, “Writing Lives in a Digital Landscape: Investigating the Boundaries between Extracurricular and Academic Writing in Higher Education” Stephanie Moody, “Virtual Relations: Exploring the Literacy Practices of a Romance Genre eCommunity.” Wendy…
A decent introduction, with rich links. Nothing really new, though. The problem, as experts like Ultima creator Richard Garriott and Infocom veteran Steve Meretzky explain in a recent documentary, is that gaming is a relatively young field. Game makers still haven’t mastered their craft the way artists, playwrights and filmmakers have. When compared to more…
A note on the conference room door says the Serious Games SIG will be meeting at the Bedford party. I was actually kind of looking forward to attending the SIG instead of the party. Oh, well. Similar:Times photo staffer's invention: the streaming backpack “From a photographer’s perspective it…AestheticsBeatrix Potter-pinching and Žižekian swipes: the strange world…
Here are my rough notes, almost liveblogged (posted when I passed through the lobby and had momentary access to WiFi). Laura K. Smith, journalism; TV news background and PR. English and communication arts program. Journalism and j-education going through turmoil as the profession changes in life-altering ways. Technology, convergence, multi platform; changes in our revenue…
We are mindful that questions have been raised about the educational value of an approach to learning so heavily dependent on the experimental use of a very new piece of mobile technology—skeptics have called the iPad a gimmick, a marketing tool, a toy, or a passing technology whim. Yet our faculty and staff believe that…